Media player sound quality

Media player sound quality

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Discussion

Skyedriver

Original Poster:

18,071 posts

284 months

Tuesday 18th October 2011
quotequote all
Following on from my (moved) thread about hearing, I was intending buying a portable media player other than an ipod because most reports say that the ipod sound quality is not the best.
Now an ipod will play from 20Hz to 20,000Hz whilst my hearing is from less than 100Hz (the test wouldn't go any lower) to only 12000Hz. Too many loud gigs in pubs and driving a Caterham without the sidescreens I suspect.
So is there more to the various players musical output than just frequency, is that down to a decent set of headphones?

Finlandia

7,803 posts

233 months

Tuesday 18th October 2011
quotequote all
Basically all media/mp3 players will sound good, but Cowon and Sony are generally regarded as top notch for sound. The trick is to match earphones that sound good together with the player, or to use a sophisticated equaliser to tailor the sound to your liking, Cowon is the best stock player for this, but any player that can be run with Rockbox is great for tinkering with the sound.

For earphones, take a look at the sticky on top smile

Skyedriver

Original Poster:

18,071 posts

284 months

Tuesday 18th October 2011
quotequote all
Finlandia said:
Basically all media/mp3 players will sound good, but Cowon and Sony are generally regarded as top notch for sound. The trick is to match earphones that sound good together with the player, or to use a sophisticated equaliser to tailor the sound to your liking, Cowon is the best stock player for this, but any player that can be run with Rockbox is great for tinkering with the sound.

For earphones, take a look at the sticky on top smile
Thanks for that, it was the Cowon I was looking at but then thought "if my ears are knackered" will an ipod sound as good?
Is it depth of sound rather than the actual range of frequency?

Melvin Udall

73,668 posts

257 months

Wednesday 19th October 2011
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Unless you are a freaky audiophile, you'll be fine. Headphones will be the main thing to be honest.

Finlandia

7,803 posts

233 months

Wednesday 19th October 2011
quotequote all
Skyedriver said:
Thanks for that, it was the Cowon I was looking at but then thought "if my ears are knackered" will an ipod sound as good?
Is it depth of sound rather than the actual range of frequency?
The player needs to deliver the sound as linear as possible, without rolling off or spiking highs or lows. Also keep in mind to have the source file at a reasonable quality, flac would be best but mp3 encoded at >192kbit/s will sound good too.

As you said, depth of sound or dynamic range is important for the sound, otherwise the sound becomes flat and un-inspiring.

Which Cowon is it you are thinking of? J3, X7?

Skyedriver

Original Poster:

18,071 posts

284 months

Wednesday 19th October 2011
quotequote all
X7 but it gets a lot of "unreliability reviews" to match the "best Sound" ones.
Like the idea of radio & recording but not if its going to fail or system fail.
Ipod seem to have it all sorted as long as you can cope with itunes. Want good sound quality for me & bit of video to keep son amused on 8 hour car journeys. But sound quality is not worth it if my ears cannot hear it! Might as well get an ipod in that case.

Finlandia

7,803 posts

233 months

Wednesday 19th October 2011
quotequote all
Do you use pc or apple computers?
If apple then go for ipod, Cowons usually have problems with apple due to some files iOS add to external devices.
If you use pcs, then opt for the Cowon, it does have many points over the ipods.

Earlier ipods can be loaded with Rockbox, keep that in mind, but for the stock player, you will have much bigger options for setting the sound up to your liking on the Cowon.


Skyedriver

Original Poster:

18,071 posts

284 months

Wednesday 19th October 2011
quotequote all
Finlandia said:
Do you use pc or apple computers?
If apple then go for ipod, Cowons usually have problems with apple due to some files iOS add to external devices.
If you use pcs, then opt for the Cowon, it does have many points over the ipods.

Earlier ipods can be loaded with Rockbox, keep that in mind, but for the stock player, you will have much bigger options for setting the sound up to your liking on the Cowon.
PC not Apple.
Thanks for the advice
Tony H

Oddboy86

194 posts

185 months

Wednesday 19th October 2011
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If Itunes is putting you off the iPod you can use Winamp instead. I use it for my music anyway as its quite good for sorting music out and plays most things.

The_Burg

4,848 posts

216 months

Thursday 27th October 2011
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Have personally found the bog basic Blackberry Curve sounds better than an iPod touch. Also saves carrying 2 devices.
Plus the huge advantage of no sodding iToons. Unlimited memory using dirt cheap micro SD cards and you can even drag and drop and change the battery!

iPod is now retired and contemplating buying a 32Gb sd card.

Quite why it took so long to realise the pointlessness of carry 2 devices.